IBM Watson Enlight

(User Experience)

IBM Watson Enlight for Educator is a desktop application that is a part of the IBM Watson Classroom experience. This browser based application is a planning tool for K-12 teachers with a focus on surfacing actionable insights and information. I worked as one of the two user experience designers on the project.

The ProblemTeachers today have hundreds of data points for each student. From previous years performance to current day, via a variety of learning activities. This information is available in a disparate set of sources, from physical folders to massive spreadsheets. Teachers lack the time to process this massive amount of current and historical data for each student into actionable insights.

Our Solution: IBM Watson ClassroomIBM Watson Classroom is a pair of solutions. An iOS app, Element and a browser app, Enlight. This software gives an educator a comprehensive view of their classes and progress for individual students. Utilizing current and historical data, a teacher can discover down to the standard level where a student is struggling. Watson Classroom serves as not only a window into her students performance but also a place to document progress and connect to relevant educational resources.

PersonasThe original research of the product was conducted by the team's two primary design researchers, Caitlin MacRae and Reed Campbell. The middle/high school persona is Jamie, a 6th grade math teacher. The elementary persona teacher is Samantha, a 4th grade teacher.

ResearchTo understand and empathize with teachers we held a workshop with elementary, middle and high school teachers and administrators. the design thinking actives we completed included Loves and hates, As Is scenario mapping for a day and a year, needs statements and big ideas.

Hills & User StoriesAfter reviewing all of the insights from the workshop a set of top concerns from the majority of educators rose to the top and became the foundation of our hills. Hills are mission statements that assist in aligning our team and scoping the release. Each hill includes a who (the user) , what (what the user is able to accomplish) and wow (measurable outcome).

Hill 1Jamie and Samantha can build, share and discover a comprehensive view of her students beyond the walls of her classroom throughout their entire learning journey.

Hill 2Jamie and Samantha can continuously assess her entire classes comprehension of a given concept and appropriately target instruction throughout the year.

Hill 3Jamie and Samantha can review, align, add and update evidence of learning for a student or class so that they know what learning activity illustrates the students comprehension of the standard.

Experience Spotlight: Evidence Of LearningWhile on the team, I designed many parts of the product, from student profile widgets to co-creating the mastery experience. The experience I had the pleasure of owning was Hill 3. We named this hill, "Evidence of Learning" (EOL). The goal of the EOL experience is to provide Jamie and Samantha the ability to continuously document their student's comprehension of standards by aligning each student's evidence. Evidence is any piece of student work that demonstrates a students comprehension including standardized test, grade book items (tests, quizzes, projects, etc) and teacher observation. By aligning the evidence, the majority of each student's progress recording can become automated.

The ApproachUnderstanding the sourceThe source is where the student’s evidence is coming from. Sources include estimation based on analyzed past progress, standardized test, grade book items (test, quizzes etc) and teacher observation (ex. group tutoring). Throughout the workflow the source is stated at key locations to have context for how the student’s knowledge level was determined.

Adding evidenceTwo key sources for evidence are the grade book and teacher’s observations. A user flow was created for each of these sources. For items from the grade book a system of aligning the learning activities to learning standards was necessary to distribute each student's knowledge levels to the correct standards automatically. Since grade book items are administered at the class level, learning activity alignment is completed by class.

Student’s are also assessed on an individual basis by their teacher via classroom participation and 1 on 1 interaction. These assessments provide an opportunity for a student to be assessed outside of traditional assessment methods like tests and quizzes. Teacher observations are often completed on an individual student basis, so the area for a teacher to add an observation was designed at the student level.

Each flow, aligning activities and adding an observation, was tested continuously with users, and proxy users to refine the experiences presented here.

Vulnerability Advisor

(User Experience, Visual Design, Design Research, Design Lead)

Vulnerability Advisor (VA) is a security capability of the IBM Bluemix cloud platform. VA provides developers and system administrators with comprehensive monitoring and reports for Docker containers. A container is a standard way to package an app and all its dependencies so that the app can be moved between environments and run without changes. I designed the VA experience as lead product designer. The solution I designed was a unique effort to execute. Due to the important nature of VA’s data I collaborated with multiple teams to ensure that our users were aware of their container health in context of their workflow.

The ProblemDevelopers and system administrators need to know when their containers and container images are vulnerable to avoid infecting their cloud environment. An image is a container blueprint. It is the template used to create a running container. Due the high risk nature of vulnerabilities, developers need instruction on how to remediate these issues and make their images safe. Additionally, system administrators need control over which images are deployed in their organization’s cloud to protect their entire cloud ecosystem.

The Solution: Vulnerability AdvisorIn 2015, the IBM Bluemix research team launched the Vulnerability Advisor capability in IBM Containers to discover vulnerabilities and compliance policy problems in images and running containers hosted on Bluemix. Vulnerability Advisor provides developers a view into their image and container health and gives guidance on how images should be improved to meet best practices and upgrade to known industry fixes.

My RoleIn December 2015 I took over the project as the lead designer and worked with the offering manager and engineering team to update the entire experience.

ResearchI began the project by interviewing developers and system administrators from startups to national banks. I focused on individuals who were already using the IBM Container service. Through a number of interviews, I began to understand their workflow and identified their pain-points. I also asked users to review the existing VA experience for feedback on what was vital and what was needed.

Early FeedbackThe participants all confirmed the desire to understand which images had infected packages and how to remediate them.

Usability test of the existing VA experience revealed:

• The desire to see the image vulnerability status before selecting images• Deeper explanation of vulnerability status names• Unsure of how to view images across their organization• Confused by what polices are and why they can only manage three• Confused on how to navigate to the VA Manager• Users desire to create VA polices

Hills & User StoriesAfter learning the pain-points of our users, I worked with my lead engineer and offering manager via a set of virtual design thinking workshops to create a set of Hills (mission statements) and user stories that addressed the top concerns of our users.

Hill 1A developer can view compliance level details of all of her containers and virtual machines without disrupting her natural workflow.

Hill 2A system administrator can be made aware of vulnerabilities in images (container/vm) and deployed elements (containers/VMs) at any time.

Hill 3A system administrator can set policies and view reports of all images, containers and virtual machines without deviating from his natural workflow.

To-Be JourneyThese stories were then prioritized and top priority stories were placed into a to-be journey map and reviewed with users to validate the new experience.

Aligning the TeamTo make sure our entire team was on the same page about the experience I hosted a sketching session where the engineers had a chance to review and ask questions about the proposed experience. This allowed for them to determine the technical foundation and story point values.

I used a lean approach to get faster feedback from users and to constantly align the team. With an emphasis on rapid sketching, prototyping, user feedback and design mockups the design process garnered designs that directly address user concerns and a sense of ownership by the team.

The ApproachStart at the beginningWhen developers and system administrators are starting the life of a container they start in the catalog. Whether they pushed the image that moment, weeks ago or would like to use an IBM created one, they will browse their options in this location.. Knowing which images are healthy at the top level view was ideal to save time and allow for the ability to filter status.

Continuous access in contextAs the container was configured and monitored, access to the VA report and policy manager were key to include at each major interaction. If there was ever a problem with the individual image or container the report would contain the information needed to remediate. The key main touch points for the report included the image configuration and container monitoring page. The policy manager is the area where system administrators can see all of their images and containers across their organization and update their organization's policy settings.

Close the loopTo stay true to the relationship between images and containers the report for images includes information about which running containers are using that image. This is important because if there is a vulnerability that is flagged within an image it will also exist in the running container. Having the list available allows for an easy review of the containers status and access to the container management area.

A home for monitoring: Vulnerability Advisor HubThe VA overview page is a key area for system administrators that spend alot of their time managing the safety of the environment. Once an organization gets large they will have hundreds of images and containers. To maximize their time and prioritize the threats the overview page surfaced the images with the largest number of vulnerabilities and a roll up of how the images have been categorized by status.

The ExperienceThe following designs that beginning at the “Create a Container” area illustrate how a developer (Maureen) can be kept aware of her vulnerability status throughout her container creation and maintenance workflow.

GradPath App

(User Experience, Visual Design)

InspirationMy idea for GradPath came after reconnecting with two teenaged girls I used to babysit when they were preschoolers. When I spoke to them about what they were doing to prepare for graduation they didn't have much to say. They just knew they wanted to graduate and go to college.

Unfortunately a year prior to me reconnecting with them, their mother passed away. Their mother was the parent in the household that had worked with them on their goals. Since her passing, their father had not taken much time to work on a plan for their education. He was busy providing for the family. This left the girls alone to make a plan for how they would get to graduation. I deeply empathized with their situation.

Their confusion reminded me of my own high school experience. Managing life in high school was hectic and preparing for life after was even more unclear. At the end of my sophomore year, I was given a Princeton Review's Road Map to College map. I posted this on my wall and used it as a guide to graduation. This resources was invaluable and helped me plan when to take test, when to research schools and apply for college.

I wanted to reimagine the Roadmap to College as a customizable tool that helps students stay informed of important activities, deadlines and plan for life after graduation. GradPath was born.

ProblemHigh school students and their parents receive large amount of information through various means with little to no aggregation.

SolutionGradPath presents the information from the student's school chronologically and allows students to use the information to create a unique high school journey that compliments who the student current is and supports them as they set the stage for who they want to become after graduation.

If you would like to learn about my process in detail please review my:Process Book

MODA Identity System

(Visual Design)

This identity redesign created for the Museum of Design Atlanta, strives to reflect the contemporary and forward thinking exhibitions that the museum host. Also, the verticality of the letters pays homage to the unique design of the museum’s architecture. The identity system is based upon the idea of repeating the square to reflect the museum’s mission to educate it’s visitors about the building blocks of design. Applications include a mark, stationery, brochure, poster series and a website.

If you are interested in learning more about my process and seeing the complete standards of this brand redesign, view them here: Process & Standards

Semi-finalist design for the 2015 Adobe Design Achievement Awards in the area of Print Communication.